Well said, however the election is just around the corner and the Mayor has learned a little from the past elections and both federal and provincial elections… spin works. When you look at the turn out at the polls in PG its clear with some spin on the issues you can improve your election outlook and make yourself look like a saint. Spin doctors carry no value to the public only their masters.

The City Manager needs to get the message out. Period! Let the responsibility of decision making fall unto her! Let’s face it she’s a life long bureaucratic that the Liberals were happy to see walk out the door. Now The City of Prince George is stuck with her!
I just hope all you folks who voted for Green are satisfied with what you got!

It is obvious to me that the City is in dire need of telling people what is happening and asking them what they want to happen.

It is also obvious to me that the City required a better web page. Other cities have some excellent web pages with excellent access to information. With ours the average citizen who wants some information has no chance.

Just look at how they let us know, because they basically had to, that they were proposing to spend some money for that and that it was going to be part of the City Manager’s “department”.

They have not even got job descriptions out there. As a result, there are people outside of City Hall spinning their versions of this action BECAUSE they do not have access to the objective. So, right away there are, of course, people who think the worst.

That is counter productive.

A couple of decades ago I was in Saskatoon for a few days. They were in the midst of their OCP review. The city busses had ads plastered all over their sides about the campaign to inform and be informed. To participate. Web pages, meetings, phone numbers especially set up for it, and various aspects of the OCP explained on the community TV channel, call in programs, etc.

Put anything we ever did here to shame!!

To get true citizen participation is difficult. It takes people who know how to do that, just as it takes engineering types to know how to build and maintain roads, buildings, etc.

We live in a world of specialization. To some, communicating with the public is seen as spin, to others it is seen as simply another function that needs to be well done.

I am willing to see what can be done under a new City Manager. If it turns out to be spin, I will call the BS exactly what it is. It is up to all of us to be vigilant.

If you want City Hall to continue to act as if they were a black box, then clip their wings and that is what you will get. BUT do not complain when that happens because they were trying to improve.

I find it HUGELY ironic that the biggest “spin doctor” in PG, Ben Meisner, is criticizing anyone for supposedly trying to do the same thing he does every single day.
Just because the message is one that you don’t agree with doesn’t necassarily mean it’s wrong. You have your opinion and that’s it.

Exactly Ben… if the mayor and council are too stupid to be able to talk then what are they doing there!

Except for the fact that Ben is not taking taxpayer money to spew his opinion on HIS website that YOU are a guest on.

realitycheck. You are a little confused between a private news business, and tax payers dollars paying for staff, to communicate message’s to citizens. One pays its own way, the other relies on tax dollars.

My take on the new communication positions, is that we are going into an election next year, and the Mayor, Councilors, and Administration will be working hard to get out all the good news, that they can for the next year.

We have already seen the first salvo with the City (miraculously) being able to now use Gas Tax Money for road rehabilitation, and adding an additional $2 Million to road repairs for 2014. This information becomes big news heading into an election year.

I further believe that the new communications positions will be used to delay or slow down access to information. Especially if the info requested could be detrimental to the City. If all request are channeled through the Communications department, then we will indeed see a slow down, and a watering down of information.

I am usually quite supportive of this site, the journalistic efforts of Mr. Meisner, and the forum he provides for people to comment on those matters of interest to this community. However, I am puzzled by this editorial, as it misses the mark by a significant margin. A good communications department is vital for local government, and the previous administration understood that point. Unfortunately, the current regime gutted that department, corrupted the website, and eliminated some really key people who do that work. What was all this replaced by? A highly-paid job posting for a high level management position, which was presumably for a hand-picked candidate of the CAO. I wonder what happened to that? Anyway, that’s the story. Poo-pooing “communications” as a critical function of local government by branding it “spin” is juvenile and (I would have thought) below the journalistic standards of this website.

This is similar to the Senate, this communications director. Absolutely useless and a waste of taxpayers money. I don’t know if today is Friday free- for-all or not but if its bandwagon day for suggestions, lets be the first to get a petition going for less politicians at the Federal level as I see they are going to increase Parliament with even more seats. More bodies to scream at each other at the Circus in Ottawa. Just what we need. Again, more useless positions just like at our local City Hall.

What kind of person becomes a communications director specializing in spin knowing full well they they are spinning half truths? Seems like a sleazy occupation to me.

It is all Bens fault that taxpayer’s money is being spent on spin doctors. Green and company need these people to try and counter Ben seeing they are no way on his level.

It seems to me that the need for the three “communication” positions depends a lot on what the job descriptions are. If their function is as spin doctors, we don’t need them. If they are going to do things like improve the web site, and more generally, to make accessible information needed to make use of city services and to make informed decisions about what we want City Council to do, then they could be useful.

Bang on billposer, I think you and gus have it right. It’s impossible to evaluate the effectiveness of these communications positions until you can actually see what it is they have done to communicate city matters more effectively.

At worst, they could be puppets for the mayor. At best, they could make a huge difference in providing people in PG and beyond with useful information about the city and all sorts of other issues.

Every single thing you experience from the point you wake up is related to communications. Your conversation with your wife, the add on the radio, the stop sign at the intersection, the tasks given to you by your boss or the posts you make on O250. Communicating is an integral component of life and I think the fact that people are questioning whether the city needs this could be taken as an indication of how much it has been lacking. Give it a chance and evaluate would be my game on it.

Communications is important to any organization and having specialists to assist with this is nothing new. The real story here is that all these positions are now exempt (non-union)and report directly to the city manager and mayor.

In most organizations communications staff rarely report directly to the CEO. Normally it is to a senior manager or a Director as was the case for the previous staff that was in place to do things like the city’s annual report.

Setting it up so these new spin doctors report directly to the new city manager is all about seizing control and consolidating power at city hall. That will politicize their positions.

Well stated, Ben! We don’t need any PR people (spin doctors) at City Hall. Didn’t we elect this Council to reduce spending and taxes. They lied to us again!

November, 2014, and the municipal election cannot come too soon for me.

This mayor and Council have made it abundantly clear that their a Dictatorship, NOT accountable to anyone!! Worst Mayor ever in PG!!!!!

Palopu posted: “realitycheck. You are a little confused between a private news business, and tax payers dollars paying for staff, to communicate message’s to citizens. One pays its own way, the other relies on tax dollars.”

The private business “paying” its own way is a bit more complex than that.

Many printed papers have had to cut back or cancel publications altogether, because people have not been buying as many papers as they used to or costs have gone up faster than they could increase subsription rates. In addition they rely on selling ads.

Just as people are getting tired of paying taxes, they are getting tired of paying for “news” when it is stale dated earlier than the publishing date/time.

The internet has had its effect.

As I keep on writing here, WE pay for it all, whether it is buying a product, advertising in a product or paying for services provided for the common good of the people.

The City hiring spin doctors only means one thing. The city is about to kick the hornets nest.

The core review is not done and more cuts are likely on the way.

Service fees, parking and taxes are going up.

The Unions are fighting for even a minuscule raise.

Managers wages are high and are likely to surpass raises that the unions get.

So in a nut shell they are about to piss a lot of people off.